Feed Empty State & Discovery
Why it matters
A new user who signs up, lands on an empty feed, and sees nothing but 'No posts yet' has no path forward and churns within the first session — this is the single largest drop-off point on every social product. Empty feeds are the default state for every new account; treating them as an error case instead of an onboarding opportunity wastes the one moment the user is most willing to click Follow. Activation metrics live or die here.
Severity rationale
Low because the feature works for active users, but the activation impact on new signups is disproportionately large.
Remediation
Detect the zero-state branch inside the feed component and render a composite onboarding block instead of a blank message. Swap the 'No posts' text for a SuggestedUsers list seeded from popular or topically relevant accounts, plus a TrendingPosts strip so the user has something to read while they build their follow graph. Update components/Feed.tsx:
if (posts.length === 0) return (<div><SuggestedUsers limit={5} /><TrendingPosts limit={5} /></div>)
DetectionPro
The detection method for this pattern is part of AuditBuffet Pro.
The full method (what to look for, pass and fail conditions, and how results get reported) ships inside the Social Features & Engagement Audit. The pattern definition, severity rationale, and remediation remain openly licensed under CC-BY-4.0.
Taxons
History
- 2026-04-18·v1.0.0·Initial import from community-social-engagement·automated